SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive #4 - Web Browsers

Initially I was a little surprised by this week's test drive, as I thought for a moment that it was almost like taking a step backwards considering all of the fantastic and interesting applications that we have looked at previously, but I found it as interesting as the past test drives as it gave me the opportunity to look at the different look and features of browsers other than Explorer - which is the only browser I have ever seen and used.

According to the Brian Tong comparison video it would appear that Firefox comes out on top of the browers. Some of the features I like alot are the session restore which opens you up where you left off if an unexpected shutdown occurs, the awesome bar which allows you to type in part words to get to sites, and the fact that it can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it - what with the 5000+ add-ons you can use to make it your personal playground.

I like the clean simple look of Chrome and some of the features like the tab drag and drop and the wrench menu. Similar to Firefox's private browsing feature which allows you to surf without leaving a trace, Chrome has the incognito mode - perhaps a feature you won't want to tell your teeangers about!

Unfortunately at this time I am reluctant to download another browser as I continue to experience problems with my PC at home and until I get it fixed, do not like doing anything other than basic tasks (and that is when it allows me to!) and due to administration and firewall restrictions at work I would not be able to do it there. But, I would certainly say that when all is good, I would choose Firefox as my browser!

SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive #3 - Podcasts & Audio

Today I looked at podcasts - although I have had minimal exposure to podcasting previously in the Joneses exercises - test drive #3 expanded upon it further by including creating your own posdcasts.

I work in a public library and organise a monthly event called the 'Coffee Corner' where a guest speaker visits and offers an information session to members of the local community. These sessions cover a wide range of issues and topics from health to gardening and storm chasing to cultural information with everything in between. I often hear feedback from disappointed people who are unable to attend the event on the day which has made me think more than once of how useful it would be to record the event and offer it as a podcast on the libraries' website for people to listen to at their leisure. This is something to be seriously considered and followed up...

I listened to a few of the SLQ 'Walking West End' files and think that our Local History collection could follow suit and also make use of podcasting but I know that the Local History Librarian has plans to tackle this in the future!

SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive #2 - Mashups

I just love the term Mashups - so no surprise to learn that it hails from the music industry where all of those clever DJs are mixing the music and vocals of different songs - but in the IT industry it refers to a web application that uses more than 1 source of content to create a new service which improves usability and makes it more engaging.

In this tute we looked at various examples of Mashups including the use of Flickr and Google (maps, street view and earth), Youtube using multiple video sources to create an entertaining speech from a string of different movies, news headlines (my least favourite - I'd rather get in there and be able to view the news links in text, read and get out) and a fantastic site for those interested in real estate - Suburb View, which allows you to search for listings in your suburb, see the location map and even the house itself - great way to save on time and fuel!

From the Mashups awards site I would have to say that I was quite surprised to see how many of the winners relate back to Twitter. Now I'm still a little slow on the uptake with Twitter and admit that it holds no interest to me in the slightest - but in the interest of the exploration part of this tuturial I have chosen Twitrans which allows you to translate your tweets to any language using human translators - for a cost of 5c a word and all within the hour! Would people actually pay to let their friends/family know the mundane and silly things that they are up to?? Apparently they do....

But Twitrans is not just for the Twitterers - it can be used by Businesses or Academics wanting to translate whole files - which includes an independant review of the translation. Of course this review pushes the cost up to 10c a word, and for an 'expert' translator as opposed to the professional translator, you'll be looking at 15c a word. All in all, probably not a bad service as it is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day from the ease and comfort of your office/study!

SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive #1 - Online Applications and Tools

Today we looked at a range of many different and often free online productivity software such as word processing, web conferencing and presentations. It is really quite amazing just how many different ones there are available and in all honestly I have only heard of Google Docs and Slideshare before.

I can certainly see the benefits of using such applications - they are flexible enough to allow those you want to have access to them as well as portable so that they can be accessed on any computer with Internet access. Brilliant really!

Out of everything we looked at in this tute - I have only ever used zamzar before so I have found it all to be very interesting indeed!

Week 8: Searching the Web

This week presented us with the perfect opportunity to take a look around the web and see what else is available to us other than Google.

Of the 5 suggested, I quite liked how Exalead allows you to add your own shortcuts to the homepage - it's nice to personalise things afterall.
The people search engine Wink was also very interesting in that I was able to find myself - interestingly, it was my facebook profile from about 5 photos ago so who knows how current the site is.

To rap things up - I'd like to thank Mr (and Mrs) Jones for the program. I will be able to take with me a whole bunch of knowledge about Web 2.0 that I didn't formerly have, and honestly, probably wouldn't have had the inclination to seek out - so in the [shortcut-ted] words of Fall Out Boy - thx fr th mmrs!

Week 7: Librarything and Doppelme

Librarything - is kinda similar to Delicious but instead of using websites it uses books to link like-minded people together with title lists, reviews and ratings. It could be used to introduce you to new authors and/or if you are in a book club.

Doppelme - this was a bit of fun although i couldn't work out how to save my avatar to my blog at first but a little bit of playing around and it all came back to me - that's what several months off from doing the Joneses will do...

Week 6: RSS Feeds and Rollyo

Things have been a little crazy-busy of late, hence the looonng break between weeks but I'm back and determined to finish the Joneses 2.0 - sheez, there is just about a Joneses 3.0 out after all!

Bloglines - makes organising your RSS feeds a breeze and was very easy to set up. The signup process is quick and painless and it has a simple to use interface, which allows you to group feeds into different folders. I subscribed to a couple of different feeds including book reviews, word of the day and science blogs.

Rollyo - is a personal search engine that you customize with a list of your own choice of URLs to search. I created a Reference based list which means that the results of my search will only be retrieved from these sites. I could see the potential for this for those that are doing very specific research but for me personally - i don't think that I would use it.